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Yesterday was my first race since 2004… well the race also marked my first time riding a bike in about 7 months… Not the best scenario for sure.

How did it play out? Three letters sum it up nicely… DNF (Did Not Finish). Just after completing the first lap, my bike just died like it ran out of gas. I knew that it had gas, I questioned some kind of a vapor lock, but that didn’t appear to be the case. So I pretty much knew it was electrical. This is because of a problem I notice on the day before when putting my bike back together. My aftermarket over-sized fuel tank sits lower in the frame, and actually rests on the spark plug cap. I had just put in a new NGK spark plug cap, to replace my old OE spark plug cap. Well the stock one is a little pliable with its rubber casing, but the new one is in a rigid hard plastic casing. So the jarring from the track actually snapped my spark plug cap into two pieces, cutting all electrical current to my spark plug.

What bummed me the most was that I just spent my money to only last for about 15 minutes… there will always be more races & chances to ride.

About my riding… yes, I was very rusty & was only cruising around. My plan was to complete a couple of laps to just get comfortable on the bike… then start to get a little more aggressive & have some fun. But I never even got to the fun. My one lap was slow, awkward & uncomfortable (I got stuck in a mud hole for a moment & also had one small crash).

So in the end, the fix is only a couple of dollars & I really did not gain anything out of the weekend. Well I suppose I did at least experience again that anxiety of sitting on the line right before the start of the race… so that’s good to get under my belt. My next race is only 2 weeks away at the D-23 Hare Scrambles at Arkansaw, WI. For sure I’m now motivated to get some seat time on the bike & to get some more cardio exercise… to be be more prepared come Arkansaw. 3 weeks after that is the OMA Moose Run.

Update: Here are the results from the race.

This Saturday will be both my first race of the year, but also my first time on a bike in 7 months. Nothing like your first race in 3 years to also be the same time to get re-acclimated with the bike & just riding.

My motor is going back in my bike on this Friday, the day before the race. So I hope to get some ball-park settings that work good enough for the race, things such as; jetting, control placements, suspension settings, & etc. My motor is out of the bike getting the bottom-end rebuilt & & the top-end ported for woods riding. I’m anxious to feel how the motor changes work out, yet this ads another variable of change that I won’t be used to on this first ride & race. I suppose being off the bike for 7 months over the winter months eliminates this variable being a real issue though.

But anyways… will I be really ready to race this weekend? Of course not! I am out of shape & have no seat time on the bike. So my plan for this race is to just “play ride” it, have a good time back on the bike & gain some experience for my next race in 2 weeks, and 3 weeks after that race is the Moose Run. Right now, I’ll be slow & awkward out there on the track, but my goal for the end of the year is to progress into a competitive rider in the B class.

But never the less, I am really pumped about meeting my buddy John at the race this weekend. We’ll be at the District 16 Hare Scrambles, Aztalan WI.

Testing of Phase 1 went successful, for the most part that is. The GS did start up after a little bit of cranking. I am not for sure how long it has been since the bike has actually been started & run… but it sounds like it has been at least 4 years or so. The bike has not been on the road since ‘93, which would be 14 years ago now.

So yea, about the Phase 1 testing; if the bike wouldn’t have started & I ended up figuring out that it would take substantial money or efforts to get running, I would likely just part out the bike to get the money that I have into it back. But yes, the bike did start. Although, it didn’t run all that great. For one thing, it won’t idle. Secondly, it needed the choke on the whole time for it to run better as well. But this is not a major surprise since the bike currently has open carbs w/o an airbox or filters on them… so it is getting more air & causing it to run lean. When I rebuilt the carbs, I had no idea where the air screws should be, so I just turned them out 1 turn. Otherwise, the current jetting should be stock. Plus, the bike might be what you’d call “cold blooded”, and my revving of it in the garage for the 5 minutes might not have woken it up from its hibernation of many years.

I attribute some of this to the jetting being off, plus possibly because it has been sitting for so long, but yes, the 30 year old GS does seem like a slow revver to me, but again, I’m used to modern liquid cooled sport bikes. Hopefully when I get it running better, the motor will get a little snappier. One good thing is that I expected to hear more valve train noise then actually I did.

I did have Brandy take some video of the moment. In the video above, you can see it smoking, as well as hear the exhaust tone and the carbs sucking in air each time I give it gas.

It has been just over one week now since I bought the GS. Since buying the bike last Saturday, I have already thrown some money at it, done some cleaning, tore some of it apart, reassembled most of those parts and I have literally bled on it. Yet, I have yet to try & start the motor.

Since buying the bike, I have gone through a variety of feelings about the project, pondering & even stressing over my choice… did I make a foolish choice, will it end up being a decent bike in the end, will all of the little things add up to putting way to much money into the bike, should I just part it out on eBay & make a little money? Showing pictures of the bike to some co-workers only added to my stress over my choice. They stated that all the little things will end up causing me to put more into it then the bike is worth. Which I do not feel that they are necessarily wrong, but at this point, I’m still going forward with the rebuild of the GS.

Upon further inspection since tearing into the bike, I have found more things then I first noticed… but this should not be abnormal for any project. So far, I have found:

• The front Master cylinder is dry, likely requiring me to replace the front master cylinder with the old brake fluid dried up inside of it.
• This will lead to possibly replacing the front brake caliper & brake line for the same reason.
• The rear brake does have old crappy fluid in it, but it doesn’t seem to be working, so that will need to be serviced with possible replacement parts needed.
• The air filter needs replacing, the foam was all gone, it’s just the metal cage of the filter that is left.
• The airbox needs a thorough cleaning, it is full of rust & flaky paint inside of it.
• The Chain is thoroughly rusted, so that’ll need to be replaced.
• Both tires are junk with weather cracks & just old-school scary technology.
• The gas tank has rust inside of it, I can hear it sliding around inside when I hold & shake the tank.
• The fork tubes are pitted up from rust, so I do not imagine that even new fork seals will last, that they will just be cut up from the pitting.

Yet, I am on the verge of testing the bike if it will pass Phase 1. Phase 1 is to just try & get the motor to run… this does not mean riding the bike. Tomorrow night, I hope to try & fire it up for the first time! I’m mixed with both excitement & nervous feelings. The way that I see it as of now, if the bike doesn’t run & I determine that it will take a lot of money to get the motor running, then the bike will fail Phase 1, & then most likely just be parted out to get my money back out of it. If I do get the bike to run, then it of course has passed Phase 1. Phase 2 will be to get the bike Safe & Legal for the road.

Well let me back up here for a moment… let me explain what I have done so far to get to be on the verge of trying to start the bike for the first time. As I mentioned in my first post of The GS Project, I did not want to try & start the bike with the rust in the tank, or the gummed up carburetors.

• Initially I put a new battery in it.
• Changed the spark plugs.
• Changed the oil & oil filter.
• Upon doing that, that is when I discovered that the tank has rust inside of it, so after asking around, I found out of a place here in town that treats the inside of gas tanks for this. They clean it out the best that they can, then they coat the inside with this rubber pigmented product. They claim that the tank will never rust inside again. Since I had three people tell me that they have had good results with this, I went for it. So the next day i get my tank back & it has this red color inside of it now. So that should take care of the tank.
• Next up was rebuilding the gummed up carbs. After taking them out & tearing them apart, wow! were they nasty! No wonder the throttle stuck & also no wonder the bike hadn’t started the last couple of times chuck tried to get it running. So after soaking the carbs in solvent & cleaning them, I then installed new jets, gaskets & etc with 4 carb repair kits that I purchased. My thoughts are that if the whole GS Project tanks… I should be able to sell the carbs on eBay & get some of my money back right there.

So far I have done enough that I feel I can put some new gas in it & try to fire it up. The motor should now be able to receive fresh & clean gas & air. I still have yet to clean/restore the airbox & also buy an air filter… but I’ll just try to fire it up w/o any filter or airbox on it, I don’t see that as an issue since I’ll only be revving it in my garage & not riding it. Maybe it’ll lean out the jetting a bit, but it shouldn’t be enough to prevent it from running.

Tomorrow night, I hope for the best. I’m anxious to hear how it even sounds. My expectations are for it to be a loud motor, with a lot of valve train noise & an exhaust that is old-school & a little loud… plus a slow rever. My previous street bike experience is from modern liquid cooled sport bikes 20 years newer then this bike.